A study on decision of townscape planning for creation of townscape in region with individuality

We classify the process and the mechanism of the planning to create the townscape with individuality. In the process of the townscape planning decision, it is important to creation of peculiar motif, sharing of image of the future by visualization, role that facilitator cooperated. It is important that the image of the future by creating of a peculiar townscape motif and the record score making and the role sharing that the facilitator cooperated and effectiveness is improved, a standard making that reflects resident's agreement enough and enhancement of support environment like location done by another system and subsidy promotion, etc.departmental bulletin pape

Keratoconus in a Cynomolgus Monkey

In a seven-year-old male cynomolgus monkey, erythema of the upper eyelid and forehead and corneal opacity, edema and conical protrusion in the eye were observed. At necropsy, ophthalmological and serological examinations revealed binocular corneal opacity and conical protrusion and a high IgE level, respectively. Thinning of the epithelium and stroma of the cornea were noted histopathologically. At the center of the corneal epithelium, the number of epithelial cells was reduced, their cytoplasm was poorer and the basal cells were flatter than at the periphery. Bowman’s membrane was folded with partial loss or breakage. Collagen fibers were compacted or disarranged, and the keratocytes were increased in the stroma, with focal pyknosis or loss of the endothelium and folding of Descemet’s membrane. Electron microscopical examination revealed atrophy of the corneal epithelial basal cells. This is the first report of a case of keratoconus in a cynomolgus monkey

Single event-related changes in cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin using word game in schizophrenia

Neuroimaging studies have been conducted using word generation tasks and have shown greater hypofrontality in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy subjects. In this study, we compared the characteristics of oxygenated hemoglobin changes involved in both phonological and categorical verbal fluency between 35 outpatients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy subjects during a Japanese “shiritori” task using single-event-related near-infrared spectroscopy. During this task, the schizophrenic patients showed significantly smaller activation in the prefrontal cortex area than the controls. In addition, a significant positive correlation was obtained between oxygenated hemoglobin changes (prefrontal cortex area, inferior parietal area) and the severity of positive psychiatric symptoms. It is possible that hypofrontality of patients may be a diagnostic assistance tool for schizophrenia, and that the relationship between activation and positive syndrome scores may be of help in predicting functional outcome in patients

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection